HarperCollins

Amazon.com balked at rival Google Inc.’s request for book scanning data, when it responded this week that it would not provide information the search engine giant had requested via subpoena earlier this month. According to published reports by the Associated Press, Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, filed its objections Monday to the subpoena it was served on Oct. 6. Claiming that revealing the information would expose trade secrets, Amazon was not willing to cooperate. The Seattle-based online book retailer offers “Search Inside,” a feature that offers customers the ability to search inside of select books that publishers have agreed to show potential purchasers. Google

View Book Business’ first webinar, “Expand Your Brand: Webinars for Publishers,” featuring executives from HarperCollins, Revell Books/Baker Publishing Group, Book Business and North American Publishing Company. http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=26438&s=1&k=F81DA29D90B6CAB3018128743C2A628A

As the publishing industry continues to move into an age of multimedia publishing and marketing, many book publishers are exploring ways to maximize the benefits of webcasts on their sales and marketing efforts. On Thursday, Oct. 19 at 2 p.m., Book Business magazine will present a webcast on how webcasts can be an effective sales and marketing tool for book publishers. Speakers at this live event include: - Jeff Yamaguchi, online marketing manager, HarperCollins - Suzie Cross, assistant marketing manager, Revell Books - Twila Bennett, director of marketing, Revell/Baker Publishing Group - Noelle Skodzinski, editor in chief, Book Business - Sharon Linsenbach, director of e-learning, North American Publishing Company

Children’s books may be about finding the kid in all of us, but everyone in the children’s publishing business agrees that they have to grow up when it comes to taking advantage of profitable opportunities. The Internet is clearly not going away, yet with the need to protect children from cyberspace predators, publishers have to go through parents to get through to their young audiences. Once you reach them, however, it can’t hurt to be as multidimensional as possible. Jason Wells, publicity and marketing director for New York-based Harry N. Abrams Inc., says kids are looking for books that are not just self-contained

The Book Business Conference and Expo is inviting applications from publishing executives to speak at the 2007 conference, to be held March 5-6, at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. This prestigious event draws thousands of publishing industry executives from around the country and features sessions on publishing management; production, manufacturing and workflow; and sales, marketing and distribution. Speakers at the 2006 conference hailed from many of the industry’s leading publishing organizations, including Merriam-Webster, Scholastic Education, HarperCollins, Thieme Medical Publishers, Oxford University Press, Houghton Mifflin, Knopf Publishing Group, Wiley, Simon & Schuster, Random House, and many more. Publishing executives interested in speaking at the

Can Sony do for electronic books what Apple has done for digital music and video? The electronics giant took its first steps in finding out, as it formally revealed its much-talked-about digital reading device and a dedicated online electronic bookstore this week. The company said Tuesday that both would be available to bibliophiles in the United States starting in October. Sony announced that its paperback-sized Portable Reader System (PRS-500) -- a thin, half-an-inch device weighing only nine ounces -- would retail for $349.99. The device, which Sony states is able to hold up to 80 electronic books without expanded memory, went on pre-sale Wednesday on

HarperCollins new Digital Media Cafe (harpercollins.iamplify.com) opened for business earlier this week. The new online venture charges for subscription and on-demand audio and video downloads featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes snippets of the publishing houses’ top talents. The distribution platform tools for the venture were created by iAmplify, a two-year-old publisher of digital media, who began working with Harper earlier this year. iAmplify Cofounder Jack Hidary spoke with Book Business EXTRA! about the new venture for offering premium downloads that allow publishers to go ‘beyond the book.’ Hidary said he believes this enterprise demonstrates a more sustainable business model for the book industry.

The adult trade business has had to endure many changes in recent years. E-books are seen as a business model alternative, but while they’ve been convenient for consumers, the adult trade revenues aren’t exactly astounding. Sure, mobile content could be a savior of the future, but right now it’s an experiment of the present. With all of that in mind, we look at the present of adult trade. No Denying Technology Brian Murray, group president of HarperCollins, says digital opportunities are growing, and the adult trade market is going to be dependent on how it’s able to grab the Web-browsing consumer. “The bookstore

“Like it or not, we have to embrace complexity,” said Merriam-Webster President and Publisher John Morse, during the 2006 Book Business Conference and Expo (story on page 10), addressing “Book Publishing: the New Business Model.” I don’t know about you, but when something I am working on seems too complex, my first inclination is to stifle the pain that has begun to fester around my eyes and move on to something I can get done quickly. Complexity means time. Time I just don’t have. But when it comes to today’s publishing environment, the complexities can seem so mammoth that the festering, behind-the-eyes pain and inclination

Not even a George Clooney sighting could disrupt the 2006 Book Business Conference and Expo, which took place March 20-22 at the Hilton New York. The celebrity was filming his latest picture just feet away from the conference’s registration area and—predictably—attracted all sorts of ogling from attendees and passers-by, but it was the conference and expo that were the stars of the week. Much like the industry it serves, the conference found itself in an unprecedented state of evolution when it kicked off on Monday, March 20. In its 10th year and amid revolutionary changes in the world of book publishing, this year’s conference